Space Station Commander Captures Unprecedented View of Comet

Where in the World? A Google Earth Puzzle

A couple of months ago In Focus posted Where in the World? A Google Earth Puzzle. "Looking at the world through via Google Earth offers striking images of the diversity of our planet and the impact that humans have had on it. Today's entry is a puzzle -- part 2 in a series (part 1 here), this time offering multiple choices. We're challenging you to figure out where in the world each of the images below is taken. North is not always up in these pictures, and, apart from a bit of contrast, they are unaltered images provided by Google and its mapping partners. So I invite you to have a look at the images below, make your guesses, and see your score at the end. Good luck! [25 images]"

Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival 2012

It's in the 40s and there's no snow around here but this week The Big Picture posted about the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival 2012 "The annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival has been held since 1963, interrupted for a number of years during the Cultural Revolution until it was resumed in 1985. Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang province, in northeastern China. It is nicknamed 'Ice City' and aptly so for winter January temperatures that average minus 18 degrees Celsius, under the influence of the cold winter wind from Siberia. The festival officially starts January 5th and lasts one month, although exhibits often stay open longer, weather permitting. Harbin is one of the world's four largest ice and snow festivals, along with Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, Canada's Quebec City Winter Carnival and Norway's Ski Festival. -- Paula Nelson (28 photos total)"

All-Request Photos from In Focus

In Focus posted All-Request Photos: Aurora Borealis, Blue Frogs, Spacewalks ... "Yesterday I decided to try an experiment: I solicited reader requests for news photos. I asked people on Twitter and Google+, 'Would you like to see a good photo of a particular subject? A high-res version of a photo you've already seen somewhere else? A photo from a particular photographer or event? If I have access and can find it, I'll try to post it' (details). The response was great, the subject matter was varied, and the task of finding the images and composing this entry was great fun. Images ranged from massive solar flares to tiny insects, taken in places from Thailand to outer space. If you enjoy this experiment, let me know in the comments, and I may develop it into a more regular feature. To all those who made requests, thanks so much, I hope you like what I was able to find. [29 photos]"

After the Battle Against SOPA—What's Next?

Lawrence Lessig has a good article in The Nation, After the Battle Against SOPA—What's Next? "January 18, 2012 could prove to be an incredibly important day, and not just for copyright policy or the Internet. On that day, two critically important things happened: First, with its 6-2 decision in Golan v. Holder, the Supreme Court shut the door, finally and firmly, on any opportunity to meaningfully challenge a copyright statute constitutionally. Second, millions from the Internet opened the door, powerfully if briefly, on the powers that dominatepolicymaking in Washington, and effectively stopped Hollywood’s latest outrage to address ‘piracy’—aka, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and the Protect IP Act (PIPA)."

Jon Stewart on Taxes

There's been a lot in the news about Mitt Romney's taxes. I think Jon Stewart did as good a job as any I've seen at putting it all in context and why we should care. The point starting at the 4 min mark I didn't see anyone else make.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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I'm still waiting for someone to ask him (or anyone in this situation) this question. Ok, you're wealthy, you didn't work but you earned a lot by investing, we gave you a tax break on this money so that you would create jobs and that wealth would trickle down. Just how many jobs did you create with your investments in the last two years? Wouldn't it be great if this was asked at a Republican debate? Would the audience get it?

Elizabeth Warren on The Daily Show

Aside from trash talking the Giants, I thought Elizabeth Warren was great on The Daily Show last night

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Daily Show on Gingrinch Debates

John Stewart was particularly good last night on Gingrinch's debate performance last week.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Oscar Nominations

Oscar nominations were this morning. Here's the full list. Only 18 films got more than one nomination and only 8 got more than 3. Here are the nominees by counts for the main categories which is not including any of the (15) shorts, the (5) animated features, (5) documentary features or (4) of the foreign language films (one of the 5 nominated ones, A Separation also got a writing nom so is included). The 15 marked with an * I still have to see.

11 Hugo
10 The Artist
6 War Horse*
6 Moneyball
5 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
5 The Descendants
4 The Help
4 Midnight in Paris
3 Transformers: Dark of the Moon*
3 The Tree of Life
3 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
3 Albert Nobbs*
3 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2 The Iron Lady*
2 My Week With Marilyn
2 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close*
2 Bridesmaids*
2 A Separation*
1 A Better Life*
1 Anonymous*
1 Beginners
1 Drive
1 Jane Eyre*
1 Margin Call
1 Real Steel*
1 Rio*
1 Rise of the Planet of the Apes
1 The Adventures of Tintin
1 The Ides of March
1 The Muppets*
1 W.E*
1 Warrior*

The other nominees, of which I've only seen 2 and haven't even heard of most of them, are:

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Separation*
Bullhead*
Footnote*
In Darkness*
Monsieur Lazhar*

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
A Cat in Paris*
Chico & Rita*
Kung Fu Panda 2*
Puss in Boots*
Rango

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
Hell and Back Again*
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory*
Pina*
Undefeated*

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement*
God Is the Bigger Elvis*
Incident in New Baghdad*
Saving Face*
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom*

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Dimanche/Sunday*
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore*
La Luna*
A Morning Stroll*
Wild Life*

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
Pentecost*
Raju*
The Shore*
Time Freak*
Tuba Atlantic*

What really surprises me in this list is how many films I haven't even heard of. Everything with multiple nominations I've heard of, although I've only seen 11 of those and missed 7. Of the other main award nominees I've never heard of A Better Life (up for best actor), Anonymous (costumes), W.E (costumes, and Madonna made a movie?!?), and I'm not sure I knew that there was a Jane Eyre adaptation this year (a limited release in March). Of the Animated Features I've never heard of A Cat in Paris or Chico & Rita which are French and Spanish films respectively. And while I've seen a lot of documentaries this year I've never heard of Pina or Undefeated. I've vaguely heard of Hell and Back Again, probably because it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year, but I don't think it got any real distribution. I guess an award at a major festival isn't enough for that.

As to what I think should have been nominated...

I've already seen complaints that Michael Fassbender should have been nominated for Shame and completely agree and I also think Michael Shannon was equally deserving for Take Shelter. I think they should have replaced Clooney and Oldman's positions (and I haven't seen Bichir in A Better Life).

I agree with the Best Actress nominees, though I haven't seen Streep's or Close's films, but how is Bérénice Bejo nominated as Supporting Actress in "The Artist"? She deserves to be nominated as Best Actress. Maybe they needed six in that category as they felt they only needed 9 in Best Picture.

I haven't seen most of the Documentary Features, but the one I did see, If a Tree Falls, was far inferior to Being Elmo and El Bulli.

But I think the biggest snubs are for The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo, even though it got five noms (actress, cinematography, editing, sound editing and mixing) it really deserved three more. I think it's crime that Girl With a Dragon Tattoo didn't get best picture, particularly as there are only 9 nominees and I've not heard good thinks about Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close or War Horse. Also David Fincher should have been nominated for directing Girl With a Dragon Tattoo over Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris. There's just no comparison. And it should have been nominated for Best Score as it's just completely disturbing. At times it's in your face, but deservedly so.

Update: The only categories I've seen all the nominated films are: Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing. If I see War Horse I get to add three categories to that list.

There were only two nominees for Best Original Song. I guess Hollywood doesn't care about music anymore. Maybe a new hit song isn't enough to get people to go to the theater anymore.

Cars 2 is the first Pixar film to not be nominated for Best Animated Feature since the awards's inception in 2001.

Hackers manipulated railway computers, TSA memo says

Hackers manipulated railway computers, TSA memo says - Nextgov "Hackers, possibly from abroad, executed an attack on a Northwest rail company's computers that disrupted railway signals for two days in December, according to a government memo recapping outreach with the transportation sector during the emergency."

What the Summers memo tells us about the Obama White House

Ezra Klein writes

What the Summers memo tells us about the Obama White House:

The economic policy memo that Larry Summers sent to Barack Obama in December 2008, and that the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza has posted in full, is the ur-text for the Obama administration. It contains the economic team’s first thoughts on almost everything the White House would go on to do. It is, without doubt, the most authoritative guide we have to the way President Obama’s first, and arguably most crucial, decisions were framed by his key policy staffers. And it has s reopened an old question about the Obama administration: Were the president’s advisers pushing him to do more or less?

(Via www.washingtonpost.com)

Do Republicans Want to Win the Presidential Election?

Mark Thoma wonders Economist's View: Do Republicans Want to Win the Presidential Election?. "It's not at all clear that Republicans would be able to reach more of their goals if they controlled the presidency and faced united opposition from the left rather than the fractured opposition they face under a Democratic president.

And the right certainly has nothing to complain about when it comes to war mongering, domestic spying, and the like. Republicans are getting everything they want, more than they ever could have dreamed of with a Democrat in power, with little outcry from the leftists that usually make such a fuss over these types of activities.

Plus, the president is taking the blame for the lousy economy, and they are able to make headway in their long held goal of discrediting Keynesian economics."

Hollywood regroups after losing battle over anti-piracy bills

Hollywood regroups after losing battle over anti-piracy bills.

"'You've got an opponent who has the capacity to reach millions of people with a click of a mouse and there's no fact-checker. They can say whatever they want,' [MPAA head Chris Dodd] said. 'We need to engage in a far better education process. People need to know … that 98% of people who work in the entertainment industry make $55,000 a year. They're not moguls and they're not walking red carpets.'"

As Cory Doctorow pointed out, "Must be terribly hard to represent the largest media empires in the world, who collectively own all the major newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, billboards, record labels and studios. How will they ever get their side of the story out?"

Up with Chris Hayes this weekend pointed out how the MPAA was playing this inside DC game sending Dodd to DC to talk with everyone and then Google et al realized they could skip the fund raising donations and just go directly to millions of users/voters. Imagine if the Google doodle one day said "Vote for Obama".

Meanwhile Anonymous is taking down sites like CBS and Universal.

What are Newt Gingrich’s big ideas?

Ezra Klein wrote What are Newt Gingrich’s big ideas?. "On Saturday’s edition of ‘Up With Chris Hayes,’ Gary Johnson brought up an old Newt Gingrich idea I hadn’t heard before: Putting individuals who brought more than two ounces of marijuana into the United States to death. That sounded extreme, even for Gingrich. So I looked it up. And sure enough, there it is: ‘The Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996.’ What makes the bill even more amazing is that Gingrich himself is a confessed pot smoker. When he was young, he said, experimenting with drugs ‘was a sign we were alive and in graduate school in that era.’"

"His ideas on the big issues are standard-issue conservatism, and they’re mixed in with occasional flights of fancy..., pure plays to resentment and fear..., and a lot of small, specific ideas."

Ginrich is a just a self-promoting ass. He just ran to promote his books and now he's the frontrunner.

Fracking Would Emit Large Quantities of Greenhouse Gases

Scientific American reports on another reason to be dubious of fracking, Fracking Would Emit Large Quantities of Greenhouse Gases. "Opposition to the hydraulic fracturing of deep shales to release natural gas rose sharply last year over worries that the large volumes of chemical-laden water used in the operations could contaminate drinking water. Then, in early January, earthquakes in Ohio were blamed on the disposal of that water in deep underground structures. Yesterday, two Cornell University professors said at a press conference that fracking releases large amounts of natural gas, which consists mostly of methane, directly into the atmosphere—much more than previously thought."

Did Gingrich's Win Break the Paradigm?

Nate Silver asks Did Gingrich's Win Break the Paradigm? and concludes, "My view is that Mr. Gingrich’s win in South Carolina alone is not enough to be paradigm-breaking. But if he follows it with a win in Florida, all bets are off. Not only would that represent further evidence of Mr. Gingrich’s strength, it would suggest that we had been weighing the evidence incorrectly all along."

Personally I think Romney is just a bad candidate (as Coakley was in MA) and the anti-incumbent tea party environment kept a lot of better candidates out the race early. Newt is what's left.

Steve Benen's explanation of How Gingrich Won SC is more interesting.

Apple Manufacturing

The New York Times has a good article, Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class. "The president’s question touched upon a central conviction at Apple. It isn’t just that workers are cheaper abroad. Rather, Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products."

“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

"When an Apple team visited, the Chinese plant’s owners were already constructing a new wing. “This is in case you give us the contract,” the manager said, according to a former Apple executive. The Chinese government had agreed to underwrite costs for numerous industries, and those subsidies had trickled down to the glass-cutting factory. It had a warehouse filled with glass samples available to Apple, free of charge. The owners made engineers available at almost no cost. They had built on-site dormitories so employees would be available 24 hours a day. The Chinese plant got the job. “The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-ranking Apple executive. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”"

There was also this This American Life episode, Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory. "Mike Daisey was a self-described "worshipper in the cult of Mac." Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out."

Jamie Young added comments to the TAL episode, One Man Visits Foxconn, A Place Even Siri Fears To Tread.

State of Healthcare Reform

Sarah Kliff wrote Health reform still stands. But parts of it have fallen. "Both Congress and the administration have repealed, stalled or backed off on a handful of health provisions, including one major new insurance program. Here’s a look at the programs that have been overturned, shutdown or stalled so far."

Kevin Drum tries to answer, Can Mitt Romney Really Repeal Obamacare?. "But how much can they repeal? That's a good question, so here's the best case scenario for liberals. Republicans can use the reconciliation process to repeal any part of Obamacare that's budget related, and that means they can repeal a big chunk of Obamacare with only 51 votes. But they can't use reconciliation to repeal pieces of the law that are strictly regulatory in nature. For that they need to use regular order, and that means they'll need 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster, which they probably won't be able to get.

So which parts are purely regulatory? There are several, but the two most important are guaranteed issue and community rating. The first means that insurance companies are required to sell insurance to anyone who wants it, and the second means that they have to charge everyone the same price. (With a few specific exceptions, like designated higher rates based on age.) So what happens if they repeal most of Obamacare but not those two parts? That's a little tricky to answer." and he goes on to try.

And for those of us in Massachusetts, John McDonough runs through what we'd lose: "Many of these are already in effect today, and others are moving quickly toward implementation. Listed here are 36 provisions of the ACA which will provide positive benefits for Massachusetts residents and which will be lost if the ACA is repealed."

Newt's Debates

This past week Newt Gingrich had two notable debate exchanges. Well exchanges isn't right, he was asked a question by the moderator and then railed about the question. The first one was Juan Williams asking about his food stamps and child janitor comments, "Can't you see that this is seen at a minimum as insulting to all Americans but particularly to black Americans?" Newt went to his standard playbook and doubled down.

The Economist (that liberal bastion) wrote Newt Gingrich: Newt and the "food-stamp president" "When Mr Gingrich replied to Mr Williams that he cannot see why some might take umbrage at his comments that black Americans 'should demand jobs, not food stamps' and that poor kids tend to lack a strong work ethic, I don't think it's quite right to say he was 'playing dumb'. On the contrary, Mr Gingrich acts as though he is so morally evolved, so essentially oriented toward truth—as though he surveys the world from such an Olympian height, through such crystalline air—that he is unable even to imagine how his use of venerable racist tropes could be sensibly seen to serve a purpose other than transmission of the plain truth. This haughty pose flatters the bigots, who Mr Gingrich knows full well are roused by talk of food stamps and an underdeveloped taste for honest labour, reframing their hoary prejudice as gallant unflinching fidelity to facts."

"Of course, Barack Obama has put no one on food stamps. Population growth together with the most severe recession since the advent of the modern American welfare state, which was in full swing when Mr Obama came into office, conspired to make a record number eligible for government food assistance."

"A thought experiment: On Twin Earth, does anyone call President John McCain the "food-stamp president"? Is it "politically incorrect" there to call him that? Or is it just so tactically weird to pin that label on a white Republican who inherited a huge recession that the idea simply never occurred to anyone? If, back in our world, it's not "politically correct" and not tactically weird to pin that label on a black Democrat who inherited a huge recession, then why not?"

digby first described the exchange as "Here's some video of an arrogant white man lecturing a black man about what black people have a right to be offend by --- on Martin Luther King day" and then showed that Gingrinch's original comments are Straight up racism, no dogwhistle necessary because he was explicitly talking about African-Americans.

Think Progress adds some facts, "Not only is his perception of food stamp beneficiaries prejudicial, it’s false. The majority of people who participate in the food stamp program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), are white. Most of the participants are also either children (who can’t earn a paycheck unless Gingrich gets his way) or seniors who are of retirement age. In 2010, working-women represented only 28 percent of SNAP beneficiaries, and working-age men represented only 17 percent."

Steve Benen answers Why Gingrich was cheered. "Even if we put aside the racial subtext, Gingrich is playing a dumb game and hoping voters won’t know the difference...If Gingrich believes food-stamp beneficiaries — nearly half of whom are children — should have less food, he should simply make the case. Instead, he relied on cheap rhetoric, which the audience apparently loved."

To make it all worse, Wonkette points out, Arizona Schools Ban Mex-Am Studies, Angry Kids Put On Janitorial Duty "In a page right out of Newt Gingrich’s alternate-history science-fiction wingnut-polygamy utopian epic Candyland Space Land, the school district in Tucson has completely banned Mexican-American studies, seized all the textbooks and even wall posters from the classrooms, and punished the students who protested by sentencing them to janitorial duty." Read the details at The Guardian and The Tucson Citizen.

But that wasn't Newt's biggest moment this week. That came Thursday night when was the first question was about his ex-wife's statements to ABC. Newt doubled down on that too, blaming the media. Stee Kornacki explains The power of conservative victimhood:

"It’s no mystery why the audience of Republicans so instinctively and passionately rallied to Gingrich’s defense. His final line was the key: That the liberal media is out to get Republicans and will stop at nothing to destroy them is an absolute article of faith on the right. It’s why so many conservative leaders claimed that Herman Cain was the victim of a liberal smear when he was confronted with sexual harassment charges in November. Never mind that the conspiracy theory made no sense (why would liberals take down a candidate they’d love to face in the general election?); logic has little to do with this. Likewise, the left would be thrilled to face Gingrich next fall, but that didn’t stop Rush Limbaugh from arguing on Thursday afternoon that the Marianne Gingrich interview was part of a media plot to take out the former speaker.

What Gingrich did brilliantly on Thursday night is to articulate this paranoid victimhood in a clear and compelling (for his audience, at least) way. It’s the same basic trick he pulled in this week’s other debate, when he connected with another strain of the persecution complex: that honest, taxpaying Republicans are the victims of a dependency class of poor people and minorities that Democrats intentionally enable. Thus did Monday’s crowd rejoice when Gingrich insisted to Fox News’ Juan Williams that there was nothing remotely insulting about his statement that the NAACP should be asking for paychecks instead of food stamps, or his suggestion that children in poor neighborhoods don’t understand the value of work."

Steve Benen expanded on this in How Gingrich connects: "Conservative voters hate the media, so Gingrich exploits that hatred. Conservative voters don’t like feeling defensive about race and policy, so Gingrich tells them why they shouldn’t. His debate performances are like dopamine for the right-wing soul.

And because Gingrich understands this so well, the nature of the story shifts — it’s not about Gingrich’s scandalous personal life and his habitual adultery; it’s about those media scoundrels trying to keep Republicans down. GOP voters should feel sorry for Gingrich, the argument goes, because they feel sorry for themselves.

The fact that this article of faith is a fantasy is irrelevant. Indeed, it just takes a moment of independent thought to tear the house of cards down: was Gingrich condemning the “despicable” media when news organizations obsessed over Anthony Weiner’s personal life? How about Eliot Spitzer? Or John Edwards?

More to the point, when Gingrich was helping lead an impeachment crusade against President Bill Clinton, and the media’s obsession with a sex scandal was boundless, did Gingrich whine, “I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country”? If he did, I missed it."

Chart of the Day: Republicans Don't Trust Anyone (Except Fox News)

Kevin Drum picks a Chart of the Day: Republicans Don't Trust Anyone (Except Fox News). "Public Policy Polling is out with their 3rd annual TV news trust poll. Among Republicans, as the chart on the right shows, the shape of the river is simple: they don't trust anyone except Fox News, who they adore. These numbers are spreads, with NBC, for example, garnering 17% trust vs. 69% distrust. Fox News, conversely, garners 73% trust vs. 17% distrust."



Paul Waldman explains:

But when this conservative talk show host mentioned the Politico, he found it necessary to refer to it as "the left-wing rag the Politico." Here in Washington, almost no one in either party is crazy enough to think that the Politico is actually a left-wing rag, an ideologically-motivated news outlet whose purpose is to advance the liberal cause. And whether this talk show host's listeners know or care much about it in particular isn't my point. My point is this: If you are a consumer of conservative media, you get constant reminders — every day, multiple times a day — that you absolutely must not believe anything you hear or read in any news outlet that is not explicitly conservative.

"As Paul says, "Conservatives and liberals are not equally prone to huddle within their self-reinforcing cocoons." Liberals don't immediately dismiss as a conspiracy everything they hear from the news media that doesn't fit their preconceived notions. They might downplay unwelcome news or even ignore it, but they're still willing to listen to it. Increasingly, conservatives simply aren't. They want to believe the world is a certain way, and they're just flatly not willing to countenance anything that might challenge those beliefs."

Star Trek/Settlers of Catan sets phasers to "SHEEP!"

Star Trek/Settlers of Catan sets phasers to "SHEEP!" "That said, I'm looking forward to alienating my loved ones with and/or playing Star Trek Catan, a Federationized take of the resource trading board game.

This version replaces the resource cards of sheep, wheat, ore, brick, and wood with Dilithium, Tritanium, food, oxygen and water; towns with space stations; the robber with the Klingon Bird-of-Prey; and roads with caravans of spaceships. In addition, this version adds new character cards which influence play in unique ways."

I learned about Catan only a couple of years ago and have enjoyed it a lot. If this was offered as an in-app purchase in the iPad version I'd be all over it.

What Mitt Romney Learned From His Dad

Rick Perlstein in Rolling Stone asks What Mitt Romney Learned From His Dad and concludes "Mitt learned at an impressionable age that in politics, authenticity kills"

It's not too long and worth reading. It made me want to vote for George Romney.

Inside the Wreck of the Costa Concordia

In Focus goes Inside the Wreck of the Costa Concordia "One week ago the cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground off Isola del Giglio, Italy. Of the more than 4,200 aboard, 11 have been confirmed dead, 21 remain missing, and hopes of finding any more survivors are fading quickly. Rescue operations were called off earlier today amid fears the ship could quickly slip and sink deeper during worsening weather conditions. Captain Francesco Schettino remains under house arrest as investigators work to determine exactly what happened, and who was at fault. Rescue workers have spent the past seven days rappelling from helicopters, scaling the hull, scrambling inside and diving beneath the wreckage, racing against the clock to find anyone alive inside the massive wreck. [34 photos]"

A rule of thumb for oil prices and growth

Brad Plumer wrote A rule of thumb for oil prices and growth "As my colleague Steven Mufson reports today, tensions with Iran are putting upward pressure on crude prices — and oil was already at a record high in 2011. Analysts are now fretting that oil could kneecap the fragile recovery. So is there a good way of estimating the effects of pricier oil?"

"Here’s another way of looking at it: In 2011, the United States paid about $125 billion more for oil imports than it did in 2010 (thanks, in part, to the disruptions caused by civil war in Libya). That “oil tax” was essentially enough to wipe out the entire stimulative effects of Barack Obama’s middle-class tax cut. A similar oil spike this year would cancel out a hefty chunk of the benefits of extending the $200 billion payroll tax cut bill that Congress is fighting over."

The rise and fall of personal computing

The rise and fall of personal computing is cute as a graph and as a video: